Forum upgrade is complete...

Comments

I think it has been mentioned, but the link to NAWS sales site, needs to be reinstated, I think it was mentioned that the header was a link, which it is, but not even a proper link, since you can't right click and open in another tab or window. This is an important feature to bring back or fix the header link which opens NAWS site instead of the forum. Often we go there for links and info for posts.

Auto save has never worked for me in the past and has worked flawlessly now!! Yahoo!!!

Home system 4000 watt (Evergreen) array standing, with 2 Midnite Classic Lites, Midnite E-panel, Prosine 1800 and Exeltech 1100, 660 ah 24v ForkLift battery. Off grid for @16 of last 17 years. Assorted other systems, and to many panels in the closet to not do more...lol

First, this has been a great, informative and useful site for a number of years. Previously, this Forum software has been the best of any of the seven-or-so Forum sites that I daily visit.

But am disappointed with this recent "Upgrade". It seems to have taken a number of steps backward;

1. Unable to SEE Threads that have posted in previously. This is an essential piece of information, especially on a busy Forum like this, with frequent Subject Drift. That this essential information has been deemed UNIMPORTANT by the authors of the software is astonishing to me.

2. It IS inconvenient to have to begin at the first page (use oldest first style), in order to find how many pages that exist, and select the last page, for the most recent posts.

3. There have been a number of situations where Threads read are not shown as having been read ... this may have been fixed by now.

Not to nit-pick, but in the past, Forum software Upgrades were just that -- UPGRADES. This one is a RETROGRADE, IMO. FWIW. But thanks for this former-great site, Vic

Ditto here, I 'fell' into the new format while away for the weekend, btw using a netbook that is seldom used, and now back home, am wading through it, so far... it does NOT ' feel ' as good as the previous version...

PS what the H... is "write something ' at the bottom of the page? No explanation ...I am not going near it!

PPS whay dowe s mry response show usp in the list of "NEW PoSTS"? I wrote it .ll i want to see its responses...

I think it has been mentioned, but the link to NAWS sales site, needs to be reinstated, I think it was mentioned that the header was a link, which it is, but not even a proper link, since you can't right click and open in another tab or window. This is an important feature to bring back or fix the header link which opens NAWS site instead of the forum. Often we go there for links and info for posts.

You can use the "Home" tab to achieve this, which is a "proper" link, so to speak. Obviously that tab can renamed to "Shop" or anything else the owners prefer.
The header, I tried to recreate what existed previously, within the parameters of the new design. There is some suggestion this is actually going to be changed so I am just awaiting instruction on what needs doing. My original aim was to replicate as closely as possible the look that was here previously. The header is now a background image which is why the link isn't a "normal" link. But as mentioned the Home tab will achieve that for you.

The "write something" at the bottom of the page is what we are used to with the "Reply" button... Just a "ready to type" posting window.

As you soon as you type something you will get the editing tool bar above the window.

...delete thing about visitor messages--I still do not understand them and what the forum is doing related to them.

-Bill

Yes, "write something" is just the reply box, same as before. The toolbar buttons can be dropped down using the "A" button, if required it's possible to make them show all the time. In fact I may do that, it makes it more obvious what it is.

You can use the "Home" tab to achieve this, which is a "proper" link, so to speak. Obviously that tab can renamed to "Shop" or anything else the owners prefer.
The header, I tried to recreate what existed previously, within the parameters of the new design. There is some suggestion this is actually going to be changed so I am just awaiting instruction on what needs doing. My original aim was to replicate as closely as possible the look that was here previously. The header is now a background image which is why the link isn't a "normal" link. But as mentioned the Home tab will achieve that for you.

Thank you, it does seem counterintuitive, as I think of the forum as a separate site and think of 'home' as the opener here. This will be very functional for me, as a regular, but might not be understood by someone new to the site.

Home system 4000 watt (Evergreen) array standing, with 2 Midnite Classic Lites, Midnite E-panel, Prosine 1800 and Exeltech 1100, 660 ah 24v ForkLift battery. Off grid for @16 of last 17 years. Assorted other systems, and to many panels in the closet to not do more...lol

I Agree with an earlier poster who mentioned that when you replie to a thread and then go back to new threads or todays post, the thread you replied to should not be high lighted as unread. I do know it is a simple thing to look at the last poster and see if it was you, so not a giant problim but you do have to look at the last poster to see if anyone responded. Not that hard but it was better before. (nit-pick, nit-pick) .

Thanks for explaining the home button being the store, I still think the host is going to lose sales due to unclearness.

I still don't like that the place to type jumps around when you hit enter and you really don't know where you are going to be till you start typing. I keep having to go back and fix my spacing.

I had one other thing that was on my mind but I too am old enough that my mind is slipping and I forget things two seconds after remembering them.

Mostly things are better since bill has been explaining the workings to us and mark has been adressing some of the issues.

I do miss the little check marks but not enough to go to only things I have already posted in. I hope that doesn't get lost in the things to do.
Thank you
gww

I noticed something in a post I just read
First there is the date and
next it appears what is the topic,
I seem to remember that the topic was at the top of each post...??
If it is possible , could the topic be the first line and then the date of the new post? Might keep us on topic a bit more.

It seemed that the Topic (Thread Title) was at the top of each post yesterday or the day before. It has now disappeared. Originally, it looked like the first line of the post--If it was a little more clear it was the title, it would have been more helpful (bold/greyed out, more at the top of the post to the right of the date).

By the way, I don't know about others--But I do not really like greyed out text. If done too much, it makes for difficult reading.

I know it is the "in thing" for many websites (and I hate it there too). LCD displays have highly variable contrast (brands, models, viewing angles, etc.). Black on White text is the best. Use Bold or Italics or different font to offset from balance of text (please).

Forum upgrade is complete... by BB.
February 10th, 2015, 9:38 PST<<<< as in right here a darker, bold and maybe a font size larger. I really don't want to mess with my other settings as they are fine on most sites.

Just ran into an odd bug with the page number links to pass along to the development team. I was on page 8 of this thread, clicked on page 9 and it took me to the bottom of the page. Same for page 10, took me to the bottom. Then I noticed the end of the link it was going to had a within-page URL reference tacked on the end (see example link below, the #postnumber at the end), which is for a post much later than page 9, which explains why it was scrolling to the bottom. Normally the page number link ends with /page9 or /page10. After refreshing the whole page it operated normally.

Most of the above can be done. The exception is "Mark Forums Read", we can change the color of it, but it will only actually work on the forum index page. Placed anywhere else, the link won't actually work, as things stand.

Spell check, doesn't seem to work all the time , in the Write something box, it highlights the error but when you right click it doesn't give you options of correct words as it used to..., other times it works....???

Spell check right mouse click (at least for windows PC) will either bring up the standard browser right click (with spelling suggestions) or a AJAX (?) right click with just cut and paste.

For me, the PMs, right mouse brings up the cut/paste. And Forum Posts usually bring up the full right click.

I asked Mark about this earlier--And this is a application that VB purchases to use for the WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor functions. He cannot fix that, but I believe put in a VB bug report. It will be on the "list" of questions/issues.

Just re-read all Posts in this Thread, but found nothing specifically about this;

Have been getting an indication that there are 'Messages' . Upon looking for real Messages, there are none.
There are, however, some indications that there have been Replies in Threads that appear to pre-date the Forum software " Upgrade ".

In looking further, it appears that I have 49 pages of Subscribed Threads. Have NEVER Subscribed to anything here. There appears that there is no Global Delete of all of these bogus Subscriptions. Can Select All, but that selects essentially everything, and then, there is no Delete option on a Right-Click.

Is there something that I can do to DELETE ALL of these bogus Subscriptions, short of manually deleting each/every Post individually (or asking a Moderator to do so manually) ? At least, am not getting any e-mail Notifications!

EDIT: Also, did like the provision to not show one's Signature in a post. Looked in Advanced, but saw nothing there. Is there any way on a case-by-case basis to do this?

Just re-read all Posts in this Thread, but found nothing specifically about this;

Have been getting an indication that there are 'Messages' . Upon looking for real Messages, there are none.
There are, however, some indications that there have been Replies in Threads that appear to pre-date the Forum software " Upgrade ".

In looking further, it appears that I have 49 pages of Subscribed Threads. Have NEVER Subscribed to anything here. There appears that there is no Global Delete of all of these bogus Subscriptions. Can Select All, but that selects essentially everything, and then, there is no Delete option on a Right-Click.

Is there something that I can do to DELETE ALL of these bogus Subscriptions, short of manually deleting each/every Post individually (or asking a Moderator to do so manually) ? At least, am not getting any e-mail Notifications!

If you can do something "different" with the Mark Forums Read... It looks just like functional and non-functional text. And there is no "hover" note or anything other than a change to the mouse pointer.

Just Bold-Blue text on light back ground or something... At/near the top of the page would be more obvious too.

Thank you--The overall contrast is is much better... If you could get "white area" out of the short posts (User Badge shrink?) etc... Would be nice.